# what languages do you speak?



## sovram (Aug 11, 2012)

i'm sure this thread has been done a dozen times, but i want to see who speaks what here because i am always eager to bother someone about their native language (which one or two of you might know firsthand).

of secondary interest is what languages you are learning or wish to learn! maybe we could learn from each other or point one another to good resources for your target languages.

i'll go first: my native language/dialect is (american) english. technically i speak a texan dialect, but i spend so much time online that my personal idiolect is probably really wacky! (see: the use of 'wacky')

my second most spoken language is swedish, which i've been learning pretty much passively for maybe a year or two now. my listening comprehension is poor, however. i can sometimes stumble through written norwegian and danish, but not often.

i used to have a somewhat significant mastery over written latin, but that has faded away from disuse. 

my particular linguistic interests lie in indo-european languages, especially those of the germanic and romance families. it's a little ridiculous, but i want to partially learn catalan, occitan, sardinian, icelandic, and frisian! 

so yes! contribute if you would like!


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## Tailsy (Aug 11, 2012)

(Scottish) English. I have some basic knowledge of French and Spanish from high school but, contrary to popular belief, I can't speak any other languages!


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## Zero Moment (Aug 11, 2012)

Taking French II this year, so hopefully I'll have a bit of knowledge of that


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## Music Dragon (Aug 11, 2012)

Only fluent in Swedish and English. Used to know some basic Mandarin and French, but that's mostly gone now. It's in there somewhere though, and I can coax it out in times of great need; help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.


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## Light (Aug 11, 2012)

Natively American English. I was born and learned to speak in Ohio so technically I have a northern accent, but have lived in Okla freaking homa for the past 12 years, and I have been (sadly) told that my accent has been affected a little bit.

And I've been studying Japanese on and off since 7th grade. I have about 2 years of college credit under my belt, but I'm still pretty uncomfortable actually trying to have a conversation.


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## Stormecho (Aug 11, 2012)

Canadian English, I suppose. 

I have great listening comprehension of Polish, but am much slower speaking it, even worse reading it. Good listening comprehension of French, same story otherwise. I'm learning Japanese in university, and can attempt basic reading without kanji and I can carry a polite conversation.


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## Phantom (Aug 11, 2012)

My native language is English (Minnesota accent, I guess), but my family speaks a lot of Polish since that's where my gram is from. 

I've studied Spanish most of my life since they started teaching us it in like third grade, and I ended up taking it until my senior year which ended up being A.P. Spanish, where I got a 5. I was part of a student exchange program with my school.


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## shy ♡ (Aug 11, 2012)

English (techincally American but since I haven't lived there for most of my life it's probably more British? idek? my accent is slightly brooklyn but barely detectable) and Hebrew. I really wanna learn German but I'm lazy and stuff. 9_9


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## Tarvos (Aug 11, 2012)

I speak fluent Dutch and English. I've studied a fair few other languages, including French, German, Russian, Latin and Swedish.

I would not say I speak any of the latter 5 fluently in terms of the fact that "I speak them like I speak my mother tongue", but I'm confused about my native language anyway (it's technically Dutch, but I'm so comfortable in English and express many things much better in that language that I often think it's a bit awkward to say these things in Dutch...)

As for my levels in the other five. Latin is pretty much all forgotten except for some passive knowledge and grammar. I haven't studied it since high school and can't speak it anyway because that is kinda beside the point with Latin (well, it isn't, but it's not taught that way).

French is a language I've learned the hard way due to living abroad. I speak it very well conversationally (i.e. I can keep a conversation going without problems or much searching for vocabulary/expressions) but I don't have the right way of phrasing things and often have to circumlocute. My passive knowledge is pretty good and I can read most novels, magazines and such in it, given that it's not ancient French or written using obscure jargon, or overly idiomatic. Popular, light novels give me no trouble. I can also be a tourist in a Francophone country and get around without ever using English for anything and manage to solve all the problems I come across (I can use the language independently). 

Mind you, I still make plenty of mistakes and they wouldn't consider me for a French office job, no way. I just get by.

My level in German is similar to that of my French. My grammar is bad, my spoken German is good and rapid-fire. I make mistakes in this language too but no German has ever had any trouble understanding me, nor I them. Just don't ask me about the grammar rules because I don't think about grammar when speaking German (obviously my grammar in writing is something terribad).

I speak basic Russian. It's good, polite, keeps a conversation going, I can do FB-style messaging in it without much searching for expressions. I don't have more than a base vocabulary though and more complex texts are beyond my scope (I tried to play Battle for Wesnoth in Russian, but my Russian vocabulary is very limited in that sort of area.)

I understand a whole lot of Swedish but my active vocabulary is quite low. Probably because it's so similar to Dutch/English/German. I've spoken it in public once and I managed to somehow get by.

I've learned phrases of several other languages during travels or for romantic purposes (I learned basic phrases in Romanian, Hebrew, Icelandic, even Greek) but none of that has really stuck to any extent. I plan on learning Hebrew, Breton, Icelandic, and whatever else comes onto my path (Mandarin?) but I have no concrete plans for developing those skills right now.

Most of all I want to get to an intermediate level in Swedish (comparable to my Russian now), speak proper French, and improve my spoken Russian and enhance my vocab in that language.

I'm leaving German for the moment because it's a language I can pretty much practice for free. I don't need to put in effort to speak it.


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## Jolty (Aug 11, 2012)

english and a liiiiittle bit of swedish. i'll be learning it properly in october

i'd be fluent if my mum spoke only swedish to me when i was little :( which was the plan but she ended up not doing it so i'd concentrate on english because we start school at 4 here


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## blazheirio889 (Aug 11, 2012)

I speak Canadian English the most fluently, though technically my mother tongue is Cantonese. I've also learned Mandarin since I was a little kid. I don't speak Chinese that much, though, so my skills are pretty rusty; I more or less just think in English and translate it, leading to wonky Chinese grammar. And I suck at reading/writing.

I can sorta read/write French, but I have trouble holding conversations since I always pause to search for the right words, and my ears suck. Hoping to get better.


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## Momo(th) (Aug 11, 2012)

I speak English, Spanish, and for some reason Enochian pretty fluently. I also taught myself Braille.


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## Autumn (Aug 11, 2012)

(Northern American) English pretty fluently. I took two years of French in school but not a whole lot stuck since I had an extremely shitty teacher. I plan to learn Italian during college.


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## goldenquagsire (Aug 11, 2012)

My mother tongue is English, don't really have any problems with that. My dad's family are all German so I've been speaking the language since I was born. Unfortunately the only time I actually use it is when I'm visiting them, so it's atrophied quite a lot. However, I can understand spoken or written German far, far better than I can speak it. I did French at school for a few years, and having been in the country for a few days now I've discovered that I can actually remember a lot more of it than I thought I would. :P

I also studied Portuegese and Spanish for a year each, but I've completely forgotten everything about them apart from _como te llama_?

If I could learn a new language? The weeaboo in me would say Japanese, since there's so much untranslated stuff that's relevant to my interests out there. The more sensible side of me would say Latin, since it would be extremely useful if I wanted to do a further degree in medieval history. If I wanted to be really pragmatic, I'd just stick with practising my French and German so I don't forget them completely.


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## Dar (Aug 11, 2012)

English.

As for languages I'd like to learn, I've been wanting to take Italian for school. However, the school I'm going to next year doesn't offer it :l 

So I guess I'll be learning Spanish.


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## Worst Username Ever (Aug 11, 2012)

Fluent English and Norwegian... I know a few words/sentences in various other languages too, but I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation or anything.

I'd like to learn more languages though.


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## Datura (Aug 11, 2012)

My L1 is American English; it's fairly standard, but I've been told by multiple people that I sound vaguely Canadian at times. Apparently I emphasize certain vowels differently than most Americans (like the _o_ in "Minnesota") and I tend to pronounce my _t_s [d].

German is my second-language; I chose to learn it in high school because it sounded more interesting than French or Spanish, and I ended up enjoying it so much that German's one of my university majors. I'm _really_ good at reading German and am at an intermediate-to-decent level when it comes to writing. Listening's okay too, but my speaking is _awful_. Embarassingly bad. I cringe when I think about how not-German I sound. I know how words _should_ sound, but there seems to be a disconnect between that and what actually comes out of my mouth. Luckily I'm taking an advanced conversation course this semester, which should be helpful. I'm also studying abroad in a year, so that should benefit my speaking a lot.

If I get comfortable enough with German and am far enough along credits-wise, I may pursue a Scandinavian Studies certificate which requires four semesters of Swedish. That's a big if, though.


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## ultraviolet (Aug 12, 2012)

I speak australian english and kangaroo reasonably fluently, and I know a handful of Italian, Swedish, Nyoongar (local indigenous dialect) and Indonesian words, but nothing I can actually get by with.


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## Minish (Aug 12, 2012)

Natively English-speaking! I'm learning Japanese; vocabulary and kanji are pretty big failings at the moment, though. I'd like to be pretty fluent in that since I've already been to Japan twice (and am there now), oops.

Languages are super-super-cool things!! I never really cared about only knowing one language, but studying one alongside linguistics makes it all even more fun!


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## Monoking (Aug 12, 2012)

Mother tongue is American English, don't feel like specifying what region.

I used to be quite good with Spanish, but not anymore. I've forgotten because I don't use it. 

In a year or so, I will be expanding my (okay) knowledge of Japanese with some Rosetta Stone-type things. My most used Japanese phrase is "Bring it on, fat man". No joke.


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## shadow_lugia (Aug 12, 2012)

My native tongue is American English, but I don't really know what dialect. Western, maybe? I also am fairly fluent in Spanish; I've been taking Spanish for the past 3 years, and apparently our school's Spanish program is really good, since (according to our teachers) we could pass college Spanish classes with relative ease. I can't take Spanish anymore in high school because my schedule won't allow it.

I'm fairly certain that I want to major in linguistics, and I'll probably continue learning languages even if I don't. The only other language our school offers is German, which I may try to take if it fits into my schedule. We also live fairly close to a community college which apparently offers several language courses. The only three I've heard of from my school's counselor are Italian, Mandarin, and Arabic, the latter two of which appeal to me greatly.

According to my grandmother and aunt, I spoke my own invented language when I was very young (and taught it to everyone else at preschool), but I can't remember any of it at all.


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## Ether's Bane (Aug 12, 2012)

English and Malay. I also studied Mandarin for about two years, but have since forgotten much of it.

And although this doesn't really count, I know a handful of cuss words/insults in Spanish. xD


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## Superbird (Aug 12, 2012)

Standard American English, without any particular dialect that comes to mind. 

I'm also learning French, but I'm not very good at that yet.


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## Cerberus87 (Aug 12, 2012)

Well I speak my own language (Portuguese), and I'm fluent in English. I'm learning German and I have a personal project that will never be completed of learning Japanese.

I'm also moderately good at Dothraki and Elvish but there's no one I can speak to since Westeros and Middle Earth are so far away...


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## opaltiger (Aug 12, 2012)

My native language is Slovenian, but I speak English (specifically, a hybrid of Australian and British English) quite a lot better. Once upon a time I could hold a conversation in German, but that got lost somewhere along the way.

Also, I can say "I eat small children" in Japanese.


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## Meowth (Aug 12, 2012)

English fluently and tiny bits of French and German still floating around in there from school. Progress on my impractically long list of languages to acquire at some point during my lifespan sure is going swimmingly.

I also make up languages but I'm guessing they don't count. Even if you ignore the fact that I only have one that I've even gotten past sorting out phonology and orthography on, and even that one has a vocabulary of about seven words and is impossible to use in talking about anything much other than eating cats.


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## Nanabshuckle8 (Aug 12, 2012)

Well, my mothertounge is swedish, Finlandswedish/finnoswedish/whatever to be more precise, which has some differences to the standard version, one of them being that we can use short vowels after eachother(the name Timo being an example), which as far as I know does not occur in standard swedish. Real finns however usually have difficulties with "sh" sounds, like in "sure", but as a fennoswede, I eliminate both problems, as well as gain the advantages, leading to my relatively good english pronunciation. I speak understandable finnish, and english almost feels like a second mothertounge. I also understand norwegian and danish to some extent.

One of my goals for the future is to speak japanese and if possible german. I'm considering french since my sister speaks it fluently and my mother is trying to learn it. If I had a time machine I'd go back in time and slap myself for picking crafts over german, since that has led me to not feel like bothering with it right now. Sadly, the courses for japanese are few and the one that I _have_ found just had to be scheduled at the same time as my taekwondo :(

I'm a bit surprised so many here speak swedish to some extent. Have some finnish hockey training.


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## Tarvos (Aug 12, 2012)

Scandinavia and the World?


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## LuckyLapras' Duck (Aug 12, 2012)

Erm, (UK) English, German and a little bit of Latin, French and Mandarin Japanese! =D


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## Murkrow (Aug 12, 2012)

English and Welsh fluently, French, German and Latin at that school level that you forget almost immediately.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 12, 2012)

ultraviolet said:


> I speak australian english and kangaroo reasonably fluently, and I know a handful of Italian, Swedish, Nyoongar (local indigenous dialect) and Indonesian words, but nothing I can actually get by with.


so uh how hard a language would you say kangaroo is to learn



opaltiger said:


> My native language is Slovenian, but I speak English (specifically, a hybrid of Australian and British English) quite a lot better. Once upon a time I could hold a conversation in German, but that got lost somewhere along the way.
> 
> Also, I can say "I eat small children" in Japanese.


small childten are delicious, yes, but  I find it is much more satisfying to eat them in a language in which one is reasonably fluent. it helps.



LuckyLapras said:


> Erm, (UK) English, German and a little bit of Latin, French and Mandarin Japanese! =D


mandarin ... japanese.

... I'm sure this ought to be reason enough for to disown, all considered, and what with the ... _thing involving the japanese >|||_, but, wait what, amusement.


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## surskitty (Aug 12, 2012)

English, with basic competence in Japanese and a really shitty amount of Italian, Spanish, Korean, and Russian, more or less in that order.


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## Teh Ebil Snorlax (Aug 12, 2012)

Fluency in English, semi-fluency in Spanish and some competence in Irish. I can also follow basic French, Portuguese and Italian well enough, thanks to my Spanish.


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## ultraviolet (Aug 12, 2012)

sreservoir said:


> so uh how hard a language would you say kangaroo is to learn?


Pretty easy! You do really need to be around kangaroos though.


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## Datura (Aug 13, 2012)

ultraviolet said:


> Pretty easy! You do really need to be around kangaroos though.


Immersion's half the battle.


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## opaltiger (Aug 13, 2012)

> small childten are delicious, yes, but I find it is much more satisfying to eat them in a language in which one is reasonably fluent. it helps.


I would argue that it is more important for the small children in question to understand me.


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## Tailsy (Aug 13, 2012)

But if they're so delicious, then why are you warning them about it? Then they'll just be a pain to catch...


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## Music Dragon (Aug 13, 2012)

You tell them _after_ you catch them, obviously.


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## Tarvos (Aug 13, 2012)

This is a good thread.


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## H-land (Aug 13, 2012)

I'm fluent in American English. I've got some level of proficiency in region-nonspecific Castilian I'm in the process of losing because practice is always so embarrassing, as well.
 I also know enough German, French, and Italian to get myself into trouble (but not out). I can understand Portuguese and Catalan texts with some level of competence if I'm given enough time to figure out what French/Castilian/Italian words they look like, too.


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## LuckyLapras' Duck (Aug 13, 2012)

sreservoir said:


> mandarin ... japanese.
> 
> ... I'm sure this ought to be reason enough for to disown, all considered, and what with the ... _thing involving the japanese >|||_, but, wait what, amusement.


Japanese, is different to Chinese. Oh, I forgot. A little bit of Hawain as well. Please correct me if I got that wrong


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## Chopsuey (Aug 13, 2012)

English, some Italian, very limited amount of German.


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## Shiny Grimer (Aug 13, 2012)

English and Spanish natively.

French, Russian pretty well.

I've studied like every language ever only not really. I've dabbled in Zulu and Icelandic.


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## hopeandjoy (Aug 14, 2012)

(American) English with a newscaster dialect, due to my father's army brat-ness and my mother's squashing of her Midwestern ascent. Have a bit of lisp sometimes and twouble with my "aw"s.

Been taking Latin for 5 years in a week and been learning Japanese on and off for 4. Not that the latter's getting anywhere.


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 15, 2012)

English. General American accent, as I've spent extended time in (and around people from) the north and the south parts of the country. I also know the bare bones of Spanish from the two years I took of it in ninth and tenth grade. The vocabulary didn't stick, but I can say simple sentences like 'where is the food' and that sort of thing.

I am so linguistic you guys.


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## Frostagin (Aug 15, 2012)

Being American, I speak English. Sometimes with a British accent, sometimes with an Appalachian one. (stereotypical country girl accent) I also tend to make an 'f' sound instead of a 'th' due to the trouble I had making the sound when I was little.

I also am _kind of_ fluent in Mandarin Chinese and know tiny bits of German, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean. I want to continue learning German and Japanese, and also start Russian. I took Latin for three years at one point, but I don't remember most of it.

Multilingual indeed. :3


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## Datura (Aug 15, 2012)

Frostagin said:


> Being American, I speak English.


Not to nitpick, but a lot of Americans don't speak English!


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## Music Dragon (Aug 15, 2012)

Datura said:


> Not to nitpick, but a lot of Americans don't speak English!


Yes, a lot of people have trouble with "there", "they're" and "their".


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## Frostagin (Aug 15, 2012)

Datura said:


> Not to nitpick, but a lot of Americans don't speak English!


I did phrase that wrong.
I should have said something more like: "Being born in America and a big anglophile, I speak English."

In my opinion, most Americans speak American, a strange version of English that includes words like 'eggplant' and 'learned'.


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## ultraviolet (Aug 16, 2012)

what's strange about 'eggplant'? o.o


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## Tarvos (Aug 16, 2012)

It's called an aubergine. Of course.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 16, 2012)

oh, is that what you call a melongene. or wait, are you talking about a brinjal. hard to tell, eh.


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## Blastoise Fortooate (Aug 16, 2012)

wait what's wrong with 'learned'?


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## sovram (Aug 16, 2012)

of course Americans speak English. we just speak a different dialect, and i kind of find it annoying when people say things like that. dialect shaming is harmful and silly. (also very nitpicky, but i'd be really surprised if English was your native language and you spoke Standard American English! you almost definitely speak a dialect without realising it. pronunciation differences between regions is evidence of differing dialects!)

as for 'learned', i have no idea? in Old English, weak verbs showed tense/aspect change through a -t or -d affix*, so it may be that in Middle English the paradigm was actually learn/learnt/learnt but then we Americans changed it to -ed by analogy, since most weak verbs in modern English use -ed and -t. this is all speculation, though.

in contrast, strong verbs used ablaut, or vowel gradation, which is where we get paradigms like sing/sang/sung.

*when i say this, i think that it was actually always a <t> in spelling, but variably a [t] or [d] in pronunciation. but again, i really am no expert on Old English.


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## Tailsy (Aug 16, 2012)

you don't even know dialect shaming until you've been stuck with a regional accent that makes people south of carlisle completely unable to understand a word you say


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## Autumn (Aug 16, 2012)

sovram said:


> you almost definitely speak a dialect without realising it. pronunciation differences between regions is evidence of differing dialects!)


I pronounce the word "won" as "wahn" (or juan like the name) and have my whole life. it wasn't until a few years ago, when my friend started making fun of me for it, that i realized that that pronunciation isn't something everyone around here uses and i must have picked it up from my pittsburgh mother. everyone around here pronounces it like "one".

on terms of language. i forgot that i also speak music theory


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## sovram (Aug 16, 2012)

Twilight Sparkle said:


> you don't even know dialect shaming until you've been stuck with a regional accent that makes people south of carlisle completely unable to understand a word you say


obviously, i've never been at the receiving end of serious dialect shaming, but i know how destructive it is, and so i would like it to be avoided here. that's all i meant! for the record i think Scottish dialects (and Scots) are crazy interesting.



			
				Augmented Second said:
			
		

> I pronounce the word "won" as "wahn" (or juan like the name) and have my whole life. it wasn't until a few years ago, when my friend started making fun of me for it, that i realized that that pronunciation isn't something everyone around here uses and i must have picked it up from my pittsburgh mother. everyone around here pronounces it like "one".


it took me a while -- but do you mean "won" like win/won/won? in which case, that's really interesting! i say it like "one" also, which, in my case, has IPA representation something like /wʌn/, but i am really bad at recognising vowels so :3


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## Adriane (Aug 16, 2012)

Augmented Second said:


> on terms of language. i forgot that i also speak music theory


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## Autumn (Aug 16, 2012)

sovram said:


> it took me a while -- but do you mean "won" like win/won/won? in which case, that's really interesting! i say it like "one" also, which, in my case, has IPA representation something like /wʌn/, but i am really bad at recognising vowels so :3


Yeah that kind of won haha. I brought this up to my mom and she was like "Huh, I guess you're right that nobody says "wahn" around here. I guess you guys did pick it up from me." Pittsburghers also say "down" as "dahn" which I find hilarious

diminished third: that actually took me a minute because I'm used to recognizing chords as like V6 rather than the actual name of the chord itself haha

also i regret to say i don't recognize your sig :< (and the only reason my sig is what it is is cause there are so many augmented seconds, i DON'T SEE ANY DIMINISHED THIRDS IN YOURS x3)


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## Spoon (Aug 16, 2012)

American-English is my first language. And not that I can speak it all that well, I took four years of German in high school. 

 On accents, however, I have something close to the American "broadcaster" accent, except maybe a tad more southern sounding! It's Midwestern, anyways. Not enough that I say soda pop, though. It's just soda. Oh and I say syrup like 'sear-UP' not 'sir-UP.' And I pronouce creek like 'creak' not 'crik.' And...and...! I say crayon kind of weird, too. I just say 'cran' instead of 'cran-yawn,' but that's just me I think. Accents are most definitely cool beans! I think it's really amusing the Missouri has two pronunciations, too. 'miz-zer-re' and 'miz-zer-ah.'

 Oh! Does anyone have words that only their family uses and aren't /real/ words? For example, my family calls dandelions when they're all fluffy with seeds 'blow flowers.'


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## Adriane (Aug 16, 2012)

Augmented Second said:


> also i regret to say i don't recognize your sig :< (and the only reason my sig is what it is is cause there are so many augmented seconds, i DON'T SEE ANY DIMINISHED THIRDS IN YOURS x3)


I have to say I didn't put two and two together, there. Don't think there's any diminished thirds in the piece offhand (I should know), though.


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## Lorem Ipsum (Aug 16, 2012)

My mother tongue is British English. I have an AS Level in Latin and Ancient Greek, and a GCSE in French. I can also speak conversationally in Spanish and Italian. Learning Russian, German and Portuguese.


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## Autumn (Aug 16, 2012)

Diminished Third said:


> I have to say I didn't put two and two together, there. Don't think there's any diminished thirds in the piece offhand (I should know), though.


_are_ there any pieces you can think of with diminished thirds?? it's easier for me to remember what has augmented seconds (they have a very distinctive flavor, after all - I was once listening to a Mystery Dungeon piece and was like "THAT'S AN AUGMENTED SECOND" so I promptly went off and figured out the melody) than what has diminished thirds (cause they're ... major seconds) so


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## Tailsy (Aug 16, 2012)

sovram said:


> obviously, i've never been at the receiving end of serious dialect shaming, but i know how destructive it is, and so i would like it to be avoided here. that's all i meant! for the record i think Scottish dialects (and Scots) are crazy interesting.


I don't think you understand.


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## ElectricTogetic (Aug 16, 2012)

My first language and absolutely the one I am most fluent in is american english.  I also knew french up until I was about four, but then I mysteriously almost completely forgot it.  I've taken spanish for three years now, so I can hold an idealistic everyone-be-happy-and-innocent conversation in that language.  You know, the kind that they teach you in the textbooks.  before that, I took French to try to regain my fluency in it, but it wasn't very successful because the teachers used curriculums from the 1980's.

On the subject of dialect, I have a texan-ish accent.  It isn't very texan at all though, because my dad is from Ohio, my mom has almost no accent (it's clearly american, though), my grandma has a south african accent, my aunt and uncle speak french primarily, and I speak to my Brittish second cousins occasionally.  Oh, and my best friend is italian-french (he speaks french fluently), and my other best friend it norwegian-jewish.  So, because of all this, I don't say "y'all," and I don't have that wierd southern inflection.  It also enables me to almost perfectly imitate any english accent.

On the other hand, and this is sort of ranting, my sister has a very, very, very _wierd_ Texan accent.  She has all the same influences as I do, but she watches a channel called TLC.  TLC's shows are all about really stupid, forcibly-girly shows, about beauty pagents and dressing gowns and such, and everyone in the shows are WHITE TRASH.  They sound super-southern and horrible, and they wear too much make-up.  Naturally, my sister happened to pick up all these accent things, except that her accent sounds almost FORCED.  She says "y'all" instead of "you," and she tries to copy that "southern belle" accent.  She also doesn't speak Latin properly, although she certainly can.  She always seems to try her best to put an american accent on foreign languages.  It's disgusting.

So, any of you have a relative who acts like that?


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## Eta Carinae (Aug 16, 2012)

Canadian English, though besides spelling I've seen very few differences between it and most American English dialects.  It's the only language I speak fluently :(

However, I'm very good with French.  A quarter of my family is French-Canadian, and a third of my school is French-Immersion (they take half of their classes in French), so I get immersed in it quite a bit, as well as fantastic marks in French courses for the last 6 or 7 years (We learned a bit when I was in the third grade, but marks in French weren't official until fourth, so I'm not sure if that counts).  I can almost always understand conversation, and can speak, read, and write it well enough to make my way through Quebec, and probably France.

Not sure if this counts, but my Facebook was in Esperanto for a few months at the beginning of the year.  I picked up a few words, but it was a very limited vocabulary, and I don't remember much since.  I also want to learn Portuguese, Ukrainian, Italian, Mandarin, and Arabic at some point, though I doubt it will happen.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 17, 2012)

I keep my calculator in swedish!

... although that has somewhat more to do with, nobody near me understands swedish and I'm the only one sufficiently familiar with the calculator to operate it without being able to read the things, with the effect that nobody is capable to screw around with the calculator while I'm not around. useful. occasionally.


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## Phantom (Aug 20, 2012)

I keep my GPS, phone, and when I had it my iPod in Spanish.


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## sovram (Aug 20, 2012)

Twilight Sparkle said:


> I don't think you understand.


okay. i'm sorry for bringing that up.


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## yiran (Aug 21, 2012)

I speak Chinese very fluently. I use British English when typing and writing but apparently I have an American accent. |||<

亦然


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## Nanabshuckle8 (Aug 27, 2012)

So apparently I speak english with a british accent, at least according to my teacher. I thought it was just some wierd mix of...stuff  o.O


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## ultraviolet (Aug 28, 2012)

yiran said:


> I speak Chinese very fluently. I use British English when typing and writing but apparently I have an American accent. |||<
> 
> 亦然


in my experience, that's incredibly common in people whose first language is an asian one (chinese, japanese, indonesian, etc.). I don't know if it's from the general absorption of American culture... everywhere, or what. In Australia there's a sizable population of immigrants from countries in Asia, and lots of people who speak english as a second language have an American accent, despite never being in America ever.


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## see ya (Aug 28, 2012)

American English first, but I use Canadian English mostly these days 'cause I live in Canada now :B  Though to be honest the differences between the two is pretty minimal. Other than the "u"s in words like colour and the structure of words like "centre", which are always present, Canadians tend to flip-flop a lot between British and American spellings. I'm cool with that, as a lot of British spellings feel weird for me to type. 

Aussi, je sais un peu de français. Mais je ne suis pas très bon à lui. :C Mon capacité est rouillé à l'extrême. Je suis désolé pour tout les Francophones qui ont lire cette.


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## 1. Luftballon (Aug 28, 2012)

yiran said:


> I speak Chinese very fluently. I use British English when typing and writing but apparently I have an American accent. |||<
> 
> 亦然


oh are those the relevant yìrán ... you know, people like to say that chinese names are random glyph copied from somewhere + one or two random glyphs which may or may not be copied from somewhere, but. that's ... impressive.

>|||


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## Amala (Aug 28, 2012)

Of course English, but I speak a little German as well, but not much since I never finished the class. :(


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